if they do, you the governments have to stop it. that's your obligation under various international charters, under the united nations. i think that's an important message for the world to hear, an important message for the egyptian government to hear. >> ifill: nick burns let's talk about two sticky points when it comes to foreign policy: iran and syria. in both cases in the speech he said we need to speak out against it whether it's assad leaving or syria stopping the slaughter of its own people but he didn't outline exactly what the u.s. would do next about that. that's what some of his critics have said he has come up short on. >> well, it's a real problem for the president because, you know, he's been trying to balance competing american interests since the beginning of the arab revolutions in january of 2011. on the one hand we've clearly supported reform and elections and democracy in places like tunisia, egypt, and with nato force in libya. but on the other hand the president has clear decidessed it's not possible for the un